The Holmes Family The Reverend Obadiah Holmes to Susannah Holmes, Wife of Joseph Masters and Mother of Margaret Masters of Harrison County, Ohio and to Margaret Masters, wife of William Alexander Leeper of Leesville, Carroll County, Ohio with information on the related BORDEN, THROCKMORTON, ASHTON, Van METER, DuBOIS, SHEPHERD, AND MCNABB FRAMILIES A CHAPTER IN: From James and Jennie Amspoker Leeper and Related Families to Captain Wesley Roy Leeper, my Father Compilation of Stephen Allen Leeper as of December 2016 Courtesy of Fort Vance Historical Society THE HOLMES FAMILY Susannah Holmes, the fourth great grand daughter of The Rev. Obadiah and Katharine Hyde Holmes, married Joseph Masters. Margaret Masters, daughter of Joseph and Susannah Holmes Masters, married William Alexander Leeper of Leesville, Carroll County, Ohio. William and Margaret Masters Leeper were the parents of Ernest, James, and Mary Leeper. Ernest Leeper (1860-1928) married Nettie Gibbs; they raised their family in San Bernardino, California. James Lawther Leeper (1862-1944) married Ermina Wilson and remained on the Leeper family homestead in Leesville, Carroll Co., Ohio. After a successful career as a business woman, Mary Leeper (1866-1940) married James Long and settled outside of Carrollton, Ohio. With our descent from The Rev. Obadiah Holmes, our Leeper Family is descended from the earliest families of America and pioneers of the New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio frontiers, inherits the heritage of a man whose courage and convictions laid the foundation for freedom of thought and religion in America, has membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (via Joseph Holmes, the great grandson of The Rev. Obadiah Holmes), and can claim President Abraham Lincoln, the great-great-great-great-great grandson of Rev. Obadiah and Katherine Hyde Holmes, as a cousin. Background on the Holmes Name The earliest appearance of a name similar to Holmes was a knight in the service of William the Conqueror in 1066, Randulphus or Ranulphus Houlme. The name is derived from an English and Scottish word, holm, signifying a meadow surrounded by water or a low flat land at the confluence of two rivers. Discovery That Rev. Obadiah Holmes is Our Ancestor We owe an inestimable debt to our "great" aunt, Mary Leeper (1866-1940), daughter of William Alexander and Margaret Masters Leeper, who became Mary Leeper Long. Without her devoted efforts to collect and preserve Leeper family history, we would certainly know far Jess about our family. Her knowledge formed the basis for the Leeper Family History compiled by Laverne Leeper in the 1930s. Upon seeing the Laverne Leeper history as a boy in the 1960s, this author, Stephen A. Leeper, was inspired to uncover and compile more about our Leeper family. Sometime (possibly between 1901 and 1934), I. Rezin Holmes [son of Samuel Holmes, both of Leesville, Ohio], knowing of the interest of his cousin, Mary Leeper (also a Holmes family descendant) in her family history, showed her a comprehensive history of his Holmes family. Understanding the import of this information, Mary Leeper Long laboriously hand copied pages and pages of notes on the Holmes family. Before she died in 1940, Mary Leeper gave her collection of Leeper family papers to Laverne Leeper -- most likely after he had completed his Leeper family history (which included Holmes family history only back to Obadiah and Mary Clunn Holmes, parents of Isaac Holmes and grandparents of Susannah Holmes, who married Joseph Masters - but which had no information on the six generations back to Rev. Obadiah Holmes). Later, Laverne Leeper passed all of his Leeper family papers to his son, James Leeper. 2 HOLMES In 1996, these Leeper family papers were given to this author, Stephen A. Leeper. In 1997, while looking through this collection of papers, Steve Leeper found a faded, folded package of papers­ the handwritten notes compiled by Mary Leeper -- perhaps unread for 70 years. Upon transcribing these numerous hand written pages, Steve Leeper discovered a fascinating history of a remarkable man and a remarkable family, our ancestors, who were instrumental in shaping freedom in this new world and in settling the wilderness of New York, New Jersey, Virginia, 1 western Pennsylvania, and Ohio during the 1ih and 18 h centuries. Mary Leeper did not include the source, or author, of the Holmes family information she copied, perhaps because it was not yet the book that it became. However, the source had to have been widely available. Similar historical information, written in the same style and words, was repeatedly found in many documents on the Holmes family. After several years of research, this author has become convinced that Mary Leeper Long saw a manuscript, perhaps in it preparation, of The American Family ofRev. Obadiah Holmes by Col. J. T. [James Taylor] Holmes, 1915. Near the end of her handwritten notes, Mary Leeper Long described her reasoning for initially withholding this information from Laverne Leeper. To understand her comments, one must know the identity of the named persons. In brief, Isaac Holmes was the son of Obadiah and Mary Clunn Holmes (our known ancestors); Isaac Holmes married Elizabeth McNabb and was the father of Susannah Holmes (wife of Joseph Masters), grandfather of Margaret Masters (wife of William Alexander Leeper), and the great grandfather of Mary Leeper Long. Margaret Masters, daughter of Joseph and Susannah Holmes Masters, married William Alexander Leeper (the William Leeper in the quoted text). Mary Leeper, who became Mary Leeper Long, was the daughter of William A. and Margaret Masters Leeper. Ernest Leeper was the son of William A. and Margaret Masters, the brother of Mary Leeper Long, and the father of Laverne Leeper (of the California Leeper family). The "historian" to which Mary Leeper Long refers is likely J. T. Holmes, who wrote The American Family of Rev. Obadiah Holmes. Mary Leeper Long calls the "historian" Joseph, but she appears to be mistaken; apparently, she did not know his name or only knew that his first initial was "J". The J. T. Holmes who wrote The American Family of Rev. Obadiah Holmes was James Taylor Holmes, the grandson of Joseph Holmes (1771-1868). This misunderstanding may have been caused by the fact that the "historian" always identified himself by only the name J. T. Holmes. The quoted text was addressed to Laverne Leeper. "My great grandfather Isaac Holmes was a brother of Joseph Holmes (1771 - 1868) on page 4 of Holmes History. The writer of the history, Joseph T. Holmes, is a descendant ofthe Joseph of 1771. What is true of his ancestry is true of ours from Obadiah and Mary Clunn back. "I am quite sure that great grandfather Isaac and great grandmother Elizabeth were neither of them twice married. Their daughter Susannah was married to Joseph Masters before she was eighteen years old. They lived together 67 years. He was 90 when he died and she 88. Neither of them were twice married. "Their daughter Margaret Masters was married to William Leeper. William and Margaret Leeper were the parents of your father, Ernest Leeper, and neither Margaret nor William were twice married. So if it is anything of which to boast, we have as good a record as the Joseph Holmes line in that respect. 3 HOLMES "From information gleaned from different sources, I find a little difference in some dates. Some say Isaac Holmes died in 1851 and some say 1852. I am inclined to believe that 1851 is correct. At the first opportunity I have to visit the Leesville cemetery, I will look on the monument and see the date there. "The reason I did not give you this ,ancient" history before was that I was never quite sure of our line farther back than Obadiah and Mary Clunn Holmes. It is known that the historian spent a small fortune and several years of research to establish the truth of the statements set forth on pages 3 and 4. "Joseph was younger than my great grandfather and it is possible that some family records were handed down to him that great grandfather Isaac did not receive and, at the time, might not have troubled to obtain, knowing that they would be preserved by his brother Joseph. "It seems that Joseph had been named for his grandfather of 1698 to 1777. Joseph would be only 6 years old when his grandfather died. However, if he were his namesake, he would know about it and, quite possibly, it is all true enough." The handwritten document, in which the above statements are made, covers the Holmes Family from Robert and Alyce Holmes, who died in 1604/05 and 1610, respectively, to Isaac Holmes, born 1764, the father of Susannah Holmes. According to a letter written by Mary Leeper Long to Laverne Leeper, dated May 9, 1934, she copied the additional information from the Holmes family history of the "historian" and from a Holmes Family Bible both of which she obtained from a ,,cousin", Rezin Holmes (the son of Samuel and Emily E. Pumphrey Holmes). Note: When this author, Stephen A. Leeper, encountered conflicting information, he considered the information found in The American Family of Rev. Obadiah Holmes by J. T. Holmes to be the authoritative source. 4 HOLMES ROBERT HULME of Reddish Robert Hulme of Reddish in the parish of Manchester was the father of Robert Hulme, who was the father of Obadiah Holmes, the immigrant to America. He married a woman named Alyce. This Robert Hulme lived to a very old age and was buried at Stockport on January 14, 1604/05. His wife, the grandmother of Obadiah Holmes, the immigrant to America, was buried under the registration of "Alyce wydow of Robte of Reddiche," at the Collegiate Church, now Cathedral of Manchester, on September 7, 1610.